A Harrier Jet Once Landed on Cargo Ship on Top of a Minivan

In June 1983, Sub-Lieutenant Ian "Soapy" Watson was a young Royal Navy pilot with only 14 missions in the Sea Harrier fighter to his name. Flying from the British aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious while on a NATO exercise, Watson became lost.

Low on fuel and unable to contact anyone, Watson finally found Spanish container ship Alraigo. He was originally going to ditch his plane in view of the crew, but then noticed that the stacked containers on the ship deck looked an awful lot like the landing pad back on Illustrious. So he landed, bringing the tail of his plane down on a floral delivery van.

Watson spent the next four days waiting for the Spanish ship to arrive at its destination, Tenrife, and the Royal Navy paid the equivalent of $1.14 million compensation to the shipping company.

Watson wasn't far off the mark. That same year, Popular Mechanicsreported British Aerospace was working on a concept called SCADS, or Shipborne Containerized Air Defense Systems. SCADS involved filling shipping containers with everything necessary to fly Harrier jets off a regular container ship, including radar system, decoys, and anti-missile systems. (Minivan not included.)

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